Top US and European diplomats campaigned in the Middle East on Sunday to keep the Gaza war from spreading across the region, but challenges remain three months into the conflict as Israel presses ahead with its operations against the Hamas terror group

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and the European Union’s top diplomat, Josep Borrell, were on separate trips to the region to try to quell spillover from the war into Lebanon, the West Bank and Red Sea shipping routes, where Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthis have said they will keep up attacks until Israel halts its campaign in the Palestinian enclave.

“We have an intense focus on preventing this conflict from spreading,” Blinken said at the onset of his trip. He was in Jordan on Sunday and will later travel to Qatar, Israel, the West Bank, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Egypt.

Jordan’s King Abdullah urged Blinken to use Washington’s influence over Israel to press it for an immediate ceasefire, a palace statement said, warning him of the “catastrophic repercussions” of Israel’s continued military campaign.

Despite widespread calls for a ceasefire in Gaza, the Israeli public opinion remains firmly behind the operation aimed at wiping out the Hamas terror group that rules Gaza, although support for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has fallen

“The war must not be stopped until we achieve all the goals – the elimination of Hamas, the return of all our hostages and ensuring that Gaza will no longer pose a threat to Israel,” Netanyahu said at the start of a weekly cabinet meeting on Sunday. “I say this to both our enemies and our friends.”

Hamas terrorists launched the war with a surprise invasion of Israel on Oct. 7, murdering some 1,200 people and taking 240 others as hostages to Gaza. More than 100 hostages are still believed to be held by Hamas.

For Israelis, the deadliest day in the country’s history and the accounts of atrocities that later emerged left a sense that its survival was at stake.

Israel responded with an ongoing military campaign of air strikes and ground operations against Hamas in Gaza. Hamas-controlled health authorities say that thousands of people have been killed during the campaign, although experts have cast doubt on the reliability of such figures coming out of Gaza.

Separately, the health ministry said Israeli drones had opened fire on buildings at the Shuhada Al-Aqsa hospital in the central Gaza Strip.

There were no reports of injuries but ministry spokesman Ashraf Al-Qidra accused Israel of trying to undermine work at the hospital, which serves hundred of thousands of Palestinians in central Gaza – the focus of a heavier Israeli ground and air offensive in the past two weeks.

Israel denies targeting civilians and says Hamas militants deliberately embed themselves among civilian populations. Hamas, which is backed by Iran and is sworn to Israel’s destruction, denies that.

BLINKEN’S TRIP

Meeting King Abdullah in Amman, Blinken “stressed U.S. opposition to forcible displacement of Palestinians from the West Bank and Gaza and the critical need to protect Palestinian civilians in the West Bank from extremist settler violence,” State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said in a statement.

Blinken is due in Doha next, where he will discuss with Qatari leaders efforts to free hostages still believed to be held by Hamas after an earlier agreement mediated by Qatar broke down, a senior State Department official said.

He will also aim to press hesitant Muslim nations in the Middle East to prepare to play a role in the reconstruction, governance and security of Gaza if and when Israel manages to eliminate Hamas, an official said.

Gun battles intensified in the southern Gaza town of Khan Younis as well as in central districts of the densely populated enclave. Israeli strikes on houses in the city killed 50 people, health officials in Nasser Hospital said on Sunday.

Outside Gaza, there was more violence in the West Bank. Israeli aircraft fired on Palestinian militants who had attacked troops in the area, the military said, and Palestinian health officials said seven Palestinians died in the strike.

An Israeli border police officer was killed and others wounded when their vehicle was hit by an explosive device during operations in the West Bank city of Jenin, the military and police said.

Israeli police killed a young Palestinian girl in a car at a West Bank crossing when they opened fire on another car suspected of a ramming attack, Israeli emergency services said.

The West Bank had already seen its highest levels of unrest in decades during the 18 months before the Gaza war, and confrontations have since escalated.

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